VT Senate President claims solar provides 30% of Germany's power

[wtmusic]

Vermont state senators apparently aren't held to the same truthiness standards as Vermont Yankee employees.

"Several weeks ago, Vermont Senate President Peter Shumlin called a vote of the Vermont Senate on whether or not to give the Public Service Commission permission to issue a certificate of public good for the continued operation of Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. One of the premises underlying the decision that the Senate made to refuse that permission was that there were other available sources of power that could replace the plant's output.

Presumably, before making that kind of decision, the senators would have received extensive staff briefings that supported their conclusion. Presumably, the senators would take the time required to understand the issues and make the best possible decision for the people that they represent. We all know that our representatives cannot be experts on all topics that might come before them, but most of us have at least some degree of trust that the representatives will take the time to listen to their staff briefs so that they can make a reasonably accurate decision based on the knowable facts.

The video above (see link) is a clear demonstration that Vermont Senator Peter Shumlin, at the very least, did not take the time to be reasonably well informed about energy before calling the vote in his legislative body. Despite repeated opportunities to "take a lookup" (that is the way that we answer in my profession if we are asked a question where we are not sure of the answer) Shumlin repeated that Germany gets 30% of its electricity from solar energy. When told that Wikipedia has a statistic of 1% with an eventual goal of 25% by 2050, he dismissed that as "that's Wikipedia" as if the answer was completely wrong."

http://theenergycollective.com/TheEnergyCollective/60965?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29

[Statistical]

1. Reality is often hard especially with large numbers.

People see solar panels on a roof or read about a solar park producing 20 MW and it seems like a lot.

Hard for people (even informed people) to grasp the reality of how much energy we use. It is utterly staggering.

We burn a CUBIC MILE of coal every 6 years. Stack pure coal so it is 1 mile wide, 1 mile long, and 1 mile high. We burn that every year. That is just the United States. The world burns one of those cubic miles every 2 years. The projection by 2030 the world will burn more than a cubic mile per year.

[Kolesar]

2. If America did not have big houses, inefficient houses and the boom in the sunbelt ...

... then we would not have the problem you described.

[Statistical]

4. Conservation would certainly help and would dramatically reduce consumption

but even if someday US per capita energy consumption was similar to say Japan or France we would still use a lot of energy.

American "supersizing" everything (homes, pools, cars, lifestyles, electronics) simply makes the problem even worse.

[bananas]

3. I just watched the video

He said, "That's what I've been told, I'm not an expert on Germany, I am an expert on Vermont."
This isn't a big deal, he acknowledged he might be wrong.
When wikipedia was quoted, a female voice (probably one of the FOX talking heads) said "but that's wikipedia",
which I interpreted as "wikipedia isn't reliable" not "wikipedia was completely wrong",
then Shumlin repeated it in agreement, and the woman said "yeah".

[NNadir]

5. Typical anti-nuke. Not very good with numbers, delusional and working to dump gas waste.

[Kolesar]

6. Wow, you wrote two "almost sentences"

...and as is your character, you didn't spare the insults.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. Now if a similarly inaccurate statement was made about nuclear energy ...

LIES! LIARS!

TOO CHEAP TO METER!

DECEIT! HUNDREDS OF YEARS!

DECEPTION! CANCER! CORRUPTION!

THOUSANDS OF YEARS! MORE CANCER!

SOCIAL INJUSTICE! MASS DEATH!

MILLIONS OF YEARS! DEAD BLOND CHILDREN!

COVER-UP! CRONEYISM!

IN YOUR BACKYARD!

I KNOW IT IN MY HEART!

And that's just the warm-up exercise.

--d!
Every Good Boy Deserves Fission

[Kolesar]

9. Three Mile Island! Chernobyl! Davis-Besse!!!

You like it so far?

Rocky Flats!
Hanford!
Yucca Mountain!!

[Fledermaus]

8. Renewable energy in Germany 15 percent in 2008

Germany is the world's first major renewable-energy economy. <1>

The share of electricity from renewable energy in Germany has increased from 6.3 percent in 2000 to about 15 percent in 2008. More than 9 billion euros (US$11.31 billion) was invested in new renewable energy installations in Germany in 2006. Some 214,000 people in Germany were employed in the renewable energy sector in 2006, especially in small and medium sized companies. Over half of these jobs are attributed to the Renewable Energy Sources Act.<2><3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_Germany

[Statistical]

11. Ironically due to success of renewable Germany has decided to postpone "phase-out" of nuclear power.

In 2000 Germany passed legislation to begin shutting down reactors in 2012 and end all nuclear activity permanently by 2020.

However now that they have made great progress on renewable they are MORE reliant on nuclear energy.

Govt commissioned some studies and concluded that phasing out nuclear would be replaced primarily by fossil fuels. Thus growing renewable energy to 20% and then losing 29% emission free power from nuclear would actually result in net increase in emissions.

I am not trying to oversell this. Germany is not intending any nuclear Renaissance. No new reactors are planned and they have placed a cap on nuclear generation. However like much of the world they are realists. Replacing nuclear with renewable energy is far less effective than using same renewable energy to replace fossil fuels.

Attempting to shut down reactors early (as some on DU advocate) would have "undone" decades of progress towards cleaner energy. Even with all Germany progress nuclear energy produces (as in all nuclear powered countries) the majority of emission free power.

[Dead_Parrot]

10. US politician turns out to be moron

Film at eleven.

(I've seen it before)